Poker games are very popular. One of the most common variations of poker is Five Card Draw. In general, in Five Card Draw poker a player is dealt five cards face up from a standard fifty-two card deck of playing cards. The player can discard none of, one of, a plurality of but less than all of, or all of the five cards. Each discarded card is replaced with another card from the deck. After replacement, the cards are evaluated for winning combinations. For a five card poker game, there are ten general categories of hands, ranked from highest to lowest, as shown in Table 1 below.
TABLE 1Ranking of Five Card Poker Hands by CategoryRankNameExample1Royal Straight FlushA  K  Q  J  10  2Straight FlushK  Q  J  10  9  3Four of a KindJ  J♥ J♦ J   3  4Full HouseA♥ A♦ A  6♦ 6  5FlushA  J  8  6  2  6Straight8♦ 7  6   5   4  7Three of a KindQ   Q♥ Q♦ 6♦ 2  8Two Pair8♦ 8♥ 5♥ 5  2  9One PairK♦ K   8  7  2♥10 High CardA♥ 10  7♦ 5   3  
Within each category, hands are ranked according to the rank of individual cards, with an ace being the highest card and a two being the lowest card. There is no difference in rank between the four suits of cards. All hands can be ranked in a linear ranking from highest to lowest. Because suits are all of the same value, however, there are multiple hands that have identical rankings. For example, there are four equivalent hands for each type of straight flush, four of a kind, or flush; there are over one hundred equivalent hands for each two pair variation; and there are over 1,000 equivalent hands for each type of no-pair hand.
Numerous other variations of poker are known, including Three Card Poker, Five Card Stud, Seven Card Stud, Hold'em (also called Texas Hold'em), Omaha (also called Omaha Hold'em), and Pai-Gow Poker. The variations in these games generally differ in the manner in which cards are dealt and in the manner and frequency in which bets are placed. Various criteria may also be used to determine a winning hand, including highest ranking hand, lowest ranking hand (Low-Ball), and the highest and lowest ranking hands (High-Low).
The number of cards dealt to a player and the player's ability to discard cards and draw replacement cards depends on the particular variation of poker being played. In typical video-based Five Card Draw Poker games, a player receives five cards from a virtual deck of cards to form an initial player hand. The player is able to either hold or discard each of the cards in the initial player hand. Typically, the player selects a hold input associated with a particular card to signify that the player would like to keep that card. Any discarded cards are replaced with cards from the virtual deck to form a final player hand. The final player hand is compared to a paytable, and the player is provided any awards based on a rank of the final player hand.
Other variations of Five Card Draw Poker exist, such as Deuces Wild. In this variation, any two in a player's hand functions as a wild card. In typical Three Card Poker games, a player plays the player's hand against a dealer hand and the player and dealer hands each include a total of three cards. In certain known Three Card Poker games, the initially dealt player hand and dealer hand are final and there is no option to replace or draw any new cards. In stud poker games, such as Five Card Stud and Seven Card stud, each player receives a number of cards dealt face-down and a number of cards dealt face-up. In typical stud games, the player is not allowed to draw or replace cards in the player hand.
Certain players seek out variations of traditional card games such as Five Card Draw, Three Card Poker, Five Card Stud, Seven Card Stud, Hold'em, Omaha, and Pai-Gow Poker. Thus, a continuing need exists for new, entertaining, and exciting card games with high degrees of player interaction.